Monday, August 3, 2009

Week 34

Everybody-

Ecuafact: They have some of the scariest natural medicine techniques. Pretty sure the members are trying to kill me. I had a nasty case of parasites this week and everybody kept trying to give me aguitas made with weeds. I´m fairly certain one of them had a drop of gasoline. It tasted horrible and it isn´t the first time. Supposed to clean you out...ew. I don´t think my organs are going suffer though. I´m safe for now.

Another good week gone, the mission really is going by fast! I hit my 10th month mark and I can hardly believe it. I still feel like a greenie, but really I´m over the hill. The winter is coming on fast!

Veronica and Vinicio are doing really well, they´ve finally decided to get married and are still coming to church without any coaxing from us! They still seem to have insurmountable problems though, although we did convince them to close their bakery Sunday. We also found out that Veronica is not a member of the church which is good because she really wants to be baptized and really didn´t grow up as a member of the church. We are hoping they will be baptized in about 2 weeks!

Fabian and Alexandra are also progressing really well. They came to church yesterday and were fasting! Some members don´t even fast! They can´t get married yet though because Alexandra is only 16 and doesn´t have permission from her parents. I think she´ll get it soon though! That was the purpose for their fast.

The family Borja is doing well still, they really seem like members for years! Octavio doesn´t have a job still and money is super tight. I think their trials are a bit longer than they planned on...we are trying to keep them excited. They are still really firm in their testimonies though, no worries there!

I love Riobamba, the people here are so great and really want to learn. I´m still really glad to have Hermana Castillo for my companion as well. I´m learning a lot!